If you think of any happy story, there will be something that causes everything to turn out well in the end. Perhaps it’s a bit of good luck, or a moment of supreme courage, or the persistence of one of the characters, or an epiphany that changes someone’s heart.
Ruth is a story that has several happy endings – in fact all the main characters end the book happier than they started it. And there’s a common thread that causes all these happy endings: the Hebrew word for it is hesed. It means a combination of love, kindness and loyalty all rolled into one.
As a book, Ruth wants to commend hesed to us as a way of life. At the end of the day, there is nothing more admirable, more worthy, than a person whose love for others shows itself in abundant kindness and unflinching loyalty. How many of our stories would be happier with a bit more hesed in them?
But above and beyond that, Ruth wants to point us to God, whose hesed does not forsake the living or the dead. (Ruth 2:20) As we trust in his kindness, love and loyalty, we can know that all our stories will end happily.
Ed.